Vehicle toy



Oct. 8, 1935. J. w. K. HEPPNER 2,016,782

VEHICLE TOY Filed June 10, 1933 INVENTOR Johh W K. Heppner ATTORNEYS T V S PA ENT. OFFICE: I

Patented Oct. 1935 vnmcm TOY I v John W. K. I Ieppner, New York, N. Y., minor to & Co pan New York, N. Y a corporation of New York Application June 10, v1933, Serial N0- 675,221.

Claims. (01. 46-48) This invention relates to vehicle toys and more 1 particularly to such toys equipped with a sound producing siren.

The object of the present invention is to generally improve vehicle toys, especially such toys simulating vehicles which ordinarily carry and use a siren. The toy may, for example, simulate a fire engine or fire department vehicle, a police car, an ambulance, an emergency truck, or the like. A more particular object of the present invention resides in the provision of a vehicle toy carrying a miniature or toy siren appropriately actuated by a driving motor or from the wheels of the vehicle to produce a wailing or shrieking sound imitative of the sirens employed as aforesaid.

If the siren is simply directly geared to the vehicle wheels or to a motor or both, the operation of the siren is arrested if the motor or vehicle is stopped. In accordance with a further feature and object of the present invention, the gearing driving the siren includes a freely disengageable element aifording overrunning rotation of the siren, that is, the drive is made such that the siren is accelerated when the vehicle accelerates, and in fact, tends to-limit or govern the vehicle speed, but the siren is free to rotate at its own natural speed if the vehicle abruptly decelerates. In fact, due to the very high step-up ratio employed in the gear train the result is in the nature of a kick-oil. mechanism which sets the siren into effective operation upon even slight movement of the driving motor. This greatly enhances the realism of the toy, for one striking characteristic of the siren is the natural change in pitch and dying out of sound which occurs when the siren is permitted to slow up at its natural speed instead of being abruptly stopped when the vehicle is stopped or substantially slowed down.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and such other objects as will hereinafter appear, my invention consists in the vehicle toy and siren elements and their relation one to the other as hereinafter are more particularly described in the specification and sought to be defined in the claims. The specification is accompanied by a drawing in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a toy embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is an inverted plan view thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a section taken in the plane of the line 3-3 in Fig. 2. Referring to the drawing, the vehicle toy comprises a vehicle body l2 having mounted thereon front wheels l4 and rear wheels I 6, the frontv wheels being freely rotatable and the rear wheels preferably being driven by an appropriate motor exemplified in the present case by a spring energized motor "I. The vehicle toy I is further equipped with a miniature or toy siren 20 which 6 is geared by appropriate step-up gearing 22 to the motor l8 and thence to the wheels l6. Considered in one aspect, the siren 20 isfgeared to the wheels l6 and is thereby adapted to be rotated upon movement of the vehicle. In such case the 10 vehicle need not have a motor but may be pulled. In another aspect the siren 20 is geared to a driving motor 18 which is used 'for propelling the vehicle and operating the siren.

Considering the arrangement in greater detail, 16 the vehicle body I2 is made ofsheet metal parts pressed to desired configuration and secured together by tongue and slot connections. The body may simulate a fire engine or, asin the present case, a roadster such as is used by the fire chief. 20

The body might equally well simulate a closed coup or other body type, but in any case when simulating a fire department vehicle it is. of course, preferably colored red.v g I The wheels I! and I6 may be made of rub- 25 her, simulating the tires used on automobiles. The front wheels I are mounted for free rotation on a spindle 24 which is carried in the front axle and bumper support 26 which in turn is pivoted at 28 to permit steering of the toy.

The rear wheels I6 are mounted on an. axle 30 carried in a motor frame 32 the side walls 34 and 36 of which house and journal the motor mechanism. This may, of c'ourse, bev of conventional type and comprises a winding stem 40 bent to form a winding key 42 and having connected thereto the inner end of a spring strip 44, the outer end of the spiral spring being connected to the motor frame as is indicated at 46. The stem 40 further carries the driving portion of an appropriate ratchet 48 which cooperates with a main driving gear 50 which is otherwise freely rotatable on stem 40. Gear 50 meshes with pinion 52 which in turn rotates gear 54 meshing with pinion 56 which in turn is mounted 45 on the rear wheel axle or drive shaft 30 and thus terminates the gear train of the wheel driving mechanism. It will be understood that when winding the spring,'ratchet l8 permits the wheels to be held or locked against r'ota- 50 tion, and that upon release of the winding key the unwinding of spring 44 rotates the winding stem and the driving portion of ratchet mechanism 48, which in turn rotates gear ill and consequently the gear train of the vehicle.

, The winding stem 40 is preferably elongated to extend beyond the side wall 34 of the motor frame to the opposite side of the vehicle. The remote end of the winding stem passes through and forms a part of the siren gear train 22. The latter is housed within appropriate side walls 60 and 62 which Journal the various spindles of the gear train. The gear train consists of a main drive gear 64 mounted. directly upon the winding stem 40 and meshing with a pinion it which in turn rotates a gear ll meshing with a pinion 10 mounted on freely rotatable spindle 12 which also carries a gear 14 meshing with a pinion I. mounted upon the siren shaft It.

It should be noted that while this gear train may, if desired, be a simple gear train providing positive interconnection between the winding stem 40 and the siren shaft I8, it preferably is modified to include a freely disengageable element affording overrunning rotation of the stem. For this purpose the spindle I2 is carried in slots III in the side walls and '2, these slots being so directed as to maintain the gear 68 and the pinion In in meshing relationship but permitting the gear ll to move away from and disengage the siren pinion 18. It will further be noted by reference to the arrows in Fig. 3,

that the direction of rotation of the gears is such that when the spring motor unwinds, the gear 68, rotating counterclockwise as viewed in Fig. 3, tends to move gear 14 intoengagement with pinion 16. On the other hand, when no driving impulse is being imparted by the motor, the gear 14 tends naturally to fall away from pinion 16 both due to gravitational influence and more importantly because the rotation of gear 14 and pinion I0 is in such direction that these parts run downwardly about the periphery of gear it whenever gear 6! is stopped or slowed down. As a result of this construction the siren is permitted to overrun, as though driven by a one-way clutch, but, because of the complete disengagement of the parts, it overruns in a substantially frictionless manner which permits sustained and gradual deceleration of the siren.

The siren itself comprises a housing made up of a shallow cup-shaped part III closed by a cap 82, the housing being apertured with appropriate openings 84 and 86. Within the housing there is rotatably supported an impeller 88 which may be of conventional type and is mounted on one end of spindle I8.

The provision of separate housings for gear trains i8 and 22 is of advantage to the manufacturer because he can make some toys without the siren equipment. In other words, the separate siren equipment may be added to a part of the line.

In the present embodiment of the invention the fire patrol vehicle has seated therein a toy fireman including a body portion 90 having arms 92 holding a simulated steering wheel 94 and having a head 96 with helmet 88 mounted for movement relative to the body 90. Specifically, in the present case the head is mounted at the upper end of a vertical shaft the lower end of which carries a face gear or pressed radially corrugated member I00 (see Fig. 2) which rests upon and meshes with a gear I02 mounted at the center portion of winding stem ll. This arrangement causes the helmeted head to rotate completely around the body as the vehicle travels, thereby producing a ludicrous effect which may be heightened by giving the face 98 a comical appearance. The toy may be provided with a bell I in further simulation of this elm of vehicle.

In operation, the toy'is wound by means of the winding key 42. The kick-of! effect produced by the very high step-up ratio ofthe siren gear 5 train 22 with the disengageable gear 14 is so sensitive that the siren is spun and 'audibly operated by even that slight restoring movement of the key which takes place as the ratchet teeth 48 come into holding relation. The child is thus able to operate the siren preliminarily while winding the toy, with a series of short siren impulses indicative, for example, of the fact that the vehicle is about to start. If preferred, the toy may be wound silently by operating the winding key relatively slowly and carefully so as not to provide noticeable propulsion or kicking-off of the siren. When the toy has been wound and is released, it moves forward with accompanying sounding of the siren. The siren load has a speed limiting a0 effect on the vehicle when the vehicle is not obstructed. In ordinary use the progress of the toy is, however, often arrested, as by meeting an obstacle in the room, whereupon the toy is abruptly stopped but the siren continues its 25 sounding in a natural and realistic manner, indicative of the flreman's desire to have the path cleared. In practice the child may often decelerate or stop the toy in order to purposely produce a change in tonal value of the siren, and this so desirable and realistic eiIect is, in fact, caused by the vehicle meeting and rolling over bumps or similar minor obstructions.

It is believed that the mode of constructing and using, and the many advantages of my inas vention, will be apparent from the foregoing detailed description thereof. It will further be apparent that while I have shown and described my invention in preferred form, many changes and modifications may be made in the structure 40 disclosed, without departing from the spirit of the invention, defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A toy vehicle comprising a toy body, wheels mounted thereon, a siren, and. a step-up gear 45 train interconnecting a wheel and said siren in order to impart rapid rotation to the siren upon movement of the vehicle, said gear train including a freely automatically disengageable element affording free overrunning rotation of the siren so whenever the vehicle decelerates faster than the natural rate of deceleration of the siren.

2. A toy vehicle comprising a vehicle body, a spring energized driving motor, wheels, a siren, and gearing interconnecting the wheels, motor, 55 and siren to impart high speed rotation to the siren upon movement of the vehicle, the part of said gearing leading solely to said siren including an automatically disengageable element to permit free overrunning of the siren upon stopso page of the vehicle.

3. A toy vehicle comprising a body, wheels mounted thereon, a siren mounted thereon, a spring drive motor having a main winding stem,

a gear housing and a train of step-up gearing 68 therein interconnecting the stem and a wheel, and

a second and independent gear housing and a train of step-up gearing therein interconnecting the stem and the siren, said latter gearing including an automatically disengageable element 10 for permitting free overrunning of the siren whenever the vehicle decelerates faster than the natural rate of deceleration of the siren.

4. A vehicle toy comprising a toy body simulating a fire department vehicle, wheels mounted on 75 said body, a siren mounted on said body, a spring drive motor carried in said body, and gearing interconnecting the wheels, motor, and the siren having air impinging blades, one-way drive mechanism connecting said siren with said motor for producing a prolonged sound when the motor unwinds, the drive'mechanism. between the motor and the siren being such that the siren load including the pressure of the atmosphere against the siren blades acts as a governor to control the speed of the automobile, yet the siren is released for free overrunning rotation whenever the vehicle is stopped or decelerates faster than the 10 natural deceleration of the siren.

JOHN W. K. HEPPNER. 

